Founded in 2020, French fintech Silvr is reinventing the way entrepreneurs get funded, and they’ve just secured €130 million to do so – one of the largest fundraising operations in the RBF sector in Continental Europe.
The funding was led by XAnge, Otium, Bpifrance, Eurazeo, ISAI and business angels, Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi (co-founders of Qonto), Raphaël Vullierme (co-founder of Luko), Louis Chatriot (co-founder of Alma) and Pierre Dutaret (co-founder of Libeo).
Silvr works to empower entrepreneurs that are building the businesses of the future by making access to funding easier, more scalable and equity-free. The startup leverages digital businesses data to predict future revenues and offer funding in just 24 hours. Currently, the startup is focusing on two verticals – ecommerce and SaaS.
Headquartered by Paris and created by two serial entrepreneurs Nima Karimi and Grégory Tappero, this new finding comes after a €3 million seed raise in 2021. The startup now has about 20 employees and has already financed more than 100 companies – including Pixpay, Cuure, Poiscaille, Lovys and Partoo.
Revenue Based Financing (RBF) is claimed to be the ‘next big thing’ in the European fintech space. Silvr are entering this market with an innovative financing model that enables companies to finance their growth while preserving their capital – leading the way for this model in Europe.
Nima Karimi, CEO and co-founder of Silvr, explained: “As an entrepreneur for the past decade, I have been faced several times with the complexity of financing my startups. Banks are reluctant to grant bank loans to digital companies that do not have assets to provide as collateral. The complex and time-consuming journey of raising equity funds concerns only a handful of companies. I founded Silvr to democratise RBF in Europe, promote fairer access to capital and allow tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who create tomorrow’s services to unlock their growth potential.”
Silvr’s ambition is the help entrepreneurs succeed and operate a founder-friendly financing solution. Founders main challenge in launching is often accessing the funds they need to easily accelerate the growth of their business, without having to pay counterparties. Silvr’s platform is adaptable to all digital business models, including SaaS, subscription model, e-commerce, mobile apps and so on.
FInancing is based on Silvr Analytics a proprietary technology platform that connects to software used by digital companies (CMS, PSP, billing software, advertising, etc.) and their professional bank accounts (via open banking) in order to assess their past performance and predict their future revenue. Growth potential is determined by analysing thousand os complex data (single visitors, turnover, average basket, return on ad spent of paid media campaigns, attrition rates, etc.) as well as industry-specific data.
According to the startup, on average companies financed by Silvr saw 64% growth two months after granting their financing. Further, in a move to promote more equality in the fintech space, 29% of Silvr financing has been granted to companies created by women.
Along with this new funding announcement, Silvr has also just announced the upcoming creation of its own debt fund as well as strategic partnerships with banking players in 2022. The funding will be used to recruit a further 100 employees in 2022, to support increased growth and further develop the platform.
Jérémie Bordier, Venture Partner at Otium Capital: “Silvr fills a real gap in the financing chain. In our business, we see everyday beautiful companies that the banks do not know how to finance and that unfortunately do not always fit our criteria. By offering modern financial products, adapted to digital companies of all sizes, Silvr enables companies to unleash their growth potential without impacting their capital. We are very proud to support Nima, Gregory and the entire Silvr team in this mission to make financing more accessible.”
